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Any analog photographers?

Wouldn't be too bad for $35. Heard that the scans are a bit soft though and the scanner doesn't do 120 film, which is something you would probably want to do in the future if you continue with film.
 
indierthanthou said:
Ok I have a source for a scanmaker 4900 for $35 off of craigslist, it includes the film attachment. Would it be worth it?
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That's a cheap office scanner, running a whopping 2400ppi. Save your money.

Try to find something like a Canon CanoScan FS4000US, or any of the Minolta Film scanners, or heck, even something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Plustek-Optic...7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1209180969&sr=8-7

The best you can do for 35mm is a Nikon Coolscan (the cheap ones are $400), or if you're rich you can get a drum scanner... don't even look (you can get a new 1Ds AND a D3 for the price.
 
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indierthanthou said:
I am fairly interested in the Plustek, I just don't want to spend the money right now. If my girlfriend buys an ipod, though, I soo am getting it.

Anybody have a used one for sale?

Also, what would I use to scan medium format film?

What about this one, since it doesn't look like the Plustek is compatible with osx?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16838111011
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This seems to be more of what I would want if I were to scan Medium Format negatives myself:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=63056499
 
$$$. Wow. What did you think about the canon, for 35mm? I probably wont be shooting enough medium format to warrant the other scanner, those I can just send off to be developed, or, I have a friend who mostly works with large format film and I talked to him the other day and he said that if I am shooting black and white he has an enlarger I could use, so I might even just go that route, for black and white. (620 and 35mm)
 
Stick with the Olympus and commercial processing and scanning for now.

It would be easy to get over your head, respooling 120 onto 620, or processing your own film, and scanning...

Get used to loading film in your camera, making good exposures, work on composition -- see if you enjoy photography. If you are enjoying yourself, you can always add others steps, like development tanks or a scanner. But as an up-front cost, it doesn't make sense.

The Olympus kit will teach you most everything about photography (along with a good book from the pre-autofocus era, i.e. the 70's.)

You needn't spend much money to get reasonable results from commercial processing and scanning. For perspective, I pay $5.50 per roll for processing-only of 35mm or 120 film. A high-res scan CD of the whole roll is another $5.00. The scans are much better than I could afford to make myself -- they are using very expensive Fuji Frontier or Noritsu scanners that deliver the same resolution as a 6mp DSLR (i.e. 3000x2000 pixel scans.) I usually get 2 to 3 hour service -- that's unbeatable convenience.

Don't underestimate the difficulty and expense of getting good scans. I have spent many years learning and trying, and come to the inescapable conclusion that I really need to spend thousands on a good Nikon scanner, and I still will only be able to scan and correct perhaps one frame every 10 minutes. It is much cheaper and easier to let the lab do it.

So to sum up my recommendations --

  • shoot 35mm on your Olympus
  • shoot colour or black and white negative (C-41 process) so that you can get cheap/quick processing anywhere
  • have the lab scan it as "high res" (3000x2000)
  • learn to use your camera well
  • learn to use photoshop or the GIMP well
  • total cost to start taking pictures - under $15
 
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